After spending a quarter-century as an activist and heading up Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Rev. Barry Lynn may be one of the country’s foremost experts on religious liberty issues. He knows all the ways the leaders of the Religious Right have tried to push their beliefs on society through legislation and lies.

On August 10, 2005, on the Christian Forums website, a Creationist wondered how apes could possibly come into existence if they only ever mated with their own species. Evolution was clearly wrong because this was a logical impossibility!

A lot of commenters attempted to explain why this was a complete misunderstanding of how evolution works. While some of them were serious, others just mocked the Creationist, in some cases, by imitating her irrational thinking. After one commenter included a 😉 emoticon, someone else responded with: “Good thing you included the winky. Otherwise people might think you are serious.”

What if they weren’t called atheist clubs, but something less combative, like “freethought” or “secular” groups?

The administrators don’t have to allow them, but you could easily make the argument that students who attend these schools may be questioning their faith, and any place of higher education ought to embrace that discussion… or stop calling themselves a “place of higher education.”